The Steel Guitar Forum

Has the era of steel guitar instrumentals come and gone?

I'n not referring to 'singing songs' that some steel player has played an intro', chorus or tag on, but, real, honest to goodness steel guitar instrumentals.

WHAT steel guitar instrumentals do YOU know and/or play at your local dance hall or club.

It would be interesting to discover.....

The tune that I play and seems to get the most applause, (response) is when I solo "Maria Elena.

Considering I play with a basically 60s country band, that's not doing too bad. People still do like beautiful melodies.

With you on that one Les, they still like the laid back well known songs.
I play, Love letters in the sand, Cold cold heart, Blue of the night, they always go down well.

Doesn't anybody ever play the old standards like......

Draggin' the Steel
B. Bowman Hop
Steelin' Away
Steel Strike
Playboy Chimes
Stainless Steel
etc.

IF NOT, WHY NOT?

Too olde fashioned?

Just curious regarding these once favorite steel guitar instrumentals of nearly all steel players.

I gave up playing and learning instrumentals years ago.( I had about twenty in my repertoire ) To me its another world mainly inhabited by people playing in their front rooms/bedrooms. The guys in most of the bands in which I've played show no interest in instrumentals ( I've been accused of ego tripping in the past when I've made such a suggestion! )and as for the punters -it's their cue to head for the bar. But it seems to be ok for the guitar player to demonstrate how well he can play Apache/Telstar or any Shadows number. Playing instrumentals is the equivalent of footballers showing how well they can keep the ball in the air by using their feet and other parts of the body but once on the field ( gig )they find no use for this particular skill. It's a dying art and it's a shame.

From where I sit, I tend to agree with you James.

I had many, many an instrumental, just like the record......but quite often the bands were incapable of playing accompaniment on the popular Speedy West numbers. Radio/TV Shows seemed to be where one could play a new instrumental every week. THOSE, were fun days.

Like you say, the current crop of band leaders tend to lust for "WIPE OUT" and other exeptionally fast and loud tunes.

Was just curious what others, of you, had encountered.

Hi Ray,
I am in the minority, I guess.
I play many old atandard instrumentals and I play them for nursing homes. I also some new as I learn them. I wouldn't have it any other way, but that is just me!
I am my own boss and it is really a lot of satisfying fun.

You have made some ec=xcellent points James.
I have done a few(very few)instrumentals and My personal opinion was that the lead singer did not like anyone else being the centre of attraction.
I often play quietly during tuning up and say to the leader(Female)that I was thinking of doing this number as an instrumental,Her reply has,for the last number of years been "I'll sing it".
That is My excuse for knowing "Half" instrumentals.
I guess I now prefer a long break or intro and allow the singer to "strut their stuff".
Best regards
Billy

The only time I got to play instrumentals they were truncated versions as break songs. Always had to be up-tempo. "Keep 'em dancin,' keeps 'em drinkin'" If I finished the set on steel, something like "Bar Hoppin'" or a short "Orange Blossom." If I finished the set on 6-string, "Elmira St. Boogie" or "Highlander Boogie." All with the singer talkin' over me: "Remember to tip your waitress or barmaid!"

New Years Eve I did the following:

Remington Ride
San Antonio Rose
Midnight in ol' Amarillo
Moonland
Wildwood Flower (twinned with lead picker)
Steel Guitar Rag
Wild Side Of Life

and a few others..........I think...........
Not bad considering I play with an excellent
lead picker and an excellent fiddle player!

Back in the days of the big Western Swing Bands, instrumentals were expected by the Dancers in the big Dance Halls and Ballrooms. They wanted to swing dance to a good solid beat and when the band started playing riff's it really energized the Dancers. They could care less about someone singing words. Most of the big Western Swing Bands worked up and played their arrangement of the big Pop Bands instrumentals.
Perdido.
A-Train
In the Mood
One O'clock Jump
Stompin at the Savoy
Undecided
Flying Home
etc. etc.
This was also the era when most of the Steel Guitar
Instrumentals were composed.
Also:
Road Side Rag
Georgia Steel Guitar
Texas Playboy Rag
Draggin the Steel
Steel Gui8tar Stomp
etc. etc.

Hey Ray and Billy, We still do a bunch of old songs when some of our old friends come by, which is less and less frequent. A lot of the snow birds still like to swing it.
Boot Heel Drag
Fat Boy Rag
Drowsy Waters
Spanish Two Step
C Jam
Royal Hawaiian Hotel
Red Wing
Bud's Bounce
Steelin The Blues
Its Like playing "stump the band"
if the crowd is small Doc

The bands I play in are all modern country , and dont care to play steel guitar rag, Ect..... I still get asked to play it but beacuse I dont play it on a regular basis Im rusty and dont play it as it should be played. Learning to play the steel and licks riffs and passages was more important than learning instrumentals to me .It doesnt do any good to learn something you dont play on a regular basis ,My theory is IF You Dont Use It You Looes It.!!!

How happy I am to hear that you guys are still with the program. That's great news!

I was afraid it might be that many of the newer players simply had never been exposed to those great old steel guitar instrumentals. To me, learning them was a stepping stone to learning the tuning itself. We lacked tab and so training our ear to HEAR IT on records, and then determining what the tuning was and HOW TO play it.......was the next step.

At age 14, when the older professional musician started frantically twisting the tuning knobs on my brand new Fender tiple-8, I tho't he was commited to destroying the darn thing. BUT, that's how I learned about C6th and Draggin' the Steel, layed there perfectly. What a mind altering experience, musically that is. That was local DJ's theme song and I could not get it in A6th or E7th or C#min.
I wanted to learn that song and HE, made it happen.

Hope you guys will keep playing those olde steel guitar instrumentals.

In the 50's, 60's, and 70's, the bands I worked with always had at least 4 instrumentals(at least 1 each set) on the program. The only one I am asked to do now, is "Last Date". When I was first started playing steel the band was really featured. Now it is all about vocals. The band does the entro, turn-a-round, and the rest is the vocalist. Occassionally, when I am playing "Last Date" or if I really hit a " super lick", on a turn-a-round, the vocalist will say," playing that steel guitar is Mr. Jody Sanders.", That is about all the recognition the band gets. I miss the good old days of instrumentals and recognizing the musician when he or she played. Jody.

TWe do the Steel Guitar Rag, In the Mood,Honky-Tonk and Chicken Strut.
Tommy Shown

i do a couple instrumentals a night where we play same crowd come and they like to slow dance so i do a way to survive and touch my heart

It's sad to say that it's true but it is. I remember when I was younger riding in the car with my mother and father listening to the radio, when somewhere in the set the DJ would play an istrumental. I tell you one thing if it weren,t for those guys picking and backing up the artist. That artist would be no one.

The loss of all those popular radio DJ's shows was really a strong base for discovering and learning the latest steel guitar instrumentals.

When they started using taped programs, assembled in Ohio or somewhere else, I feel our 'music' and those great instrumentals died on the vine.

In Oregon, they started using pop show DJ's and they knew nothing about country music, no history to touch on, and certainly no awareness of who was who in greatness.

Yes, those WERE the DAYS.......... Sorry they faded into oblivian.

Ray, When I was playing in Portland we had 24 hr. country on KVAN with Ken Debord and Willie Nelson as DJs and they could both play. It seemed the good DJs played songs with good musical back up. Doc.

When my Son was still living, we had a little 3 piece band, I played steel & guitar, and we would switch around & I would play bass, & he would play guitar [he never played steel guitar], but anyhow at that time I played instrumentals for break songs all the time. I used a souped up version on the B6th tuning of Please Release me [thanks to Herby Wallace for that one], Steel Guitar Rag in Eb & B, Orange Blossom Special, B Bowman Hop, Steelin the Blues, just too many to think of. but in most cases in bands that I was just the steel player, I usually did Buds Bounce, or SGR, something easy, cause most of the guitar players were not interested in steel solos all that much.

Ernie Pollock
http://www.hereintown.net/~shobud75/stock.htm

Dr. Buffington..........Yes, KVAN was a long main-stay here in this area...with Bar-B-Q-Bill, Shorty the Hired Hand, Anne Jones, Buddy Simmons and others.
But I don't recall if they bowed out of country or what but a former Rock and Roll station, KWJJ, finally became the big station. Those Rock & Roll DJ's tried talking 'country' and it was insulting to have to listen to them.
By the way Kenny DeBord just passed away, I believe it was last summer; if not, the summer before. He was always a really pleasant person and great vocalist.

Most bands that have a vocalist don't do instrumental tunes of any sort at all anymore, regardless of genre. If you're in a jazz band, it's another story altogether.

I play in an original rock instrumental band, so all of our tunes are instrumental

The first BIG band I played in, had a steel, lead guitar and fiddle, plus rythmn and bass. They had
three vocalists. The leader was not up to the level as some of the others so 3-part harmonies using fiddle were out of the question.
The second BIG band I played in, had steel, lead guitar and fiddle, plus drums, two rythmn guitars and bass. We had four vocalists. We did a lot of three part instrumental harmony tunes which was great fun.
The TV Band I played in, had steel, fiddle and accordian, plus rythmn guitar, drums and bass. This group had two vocalists.

QUESTION: Is there any possibility, do you think, that as the instrumental arrangements disappeared, so did the crowds? Any correlation in this fact?
Our crowds average about 750 each Saturday night, up thro' the mid-to late-1960's.